


Come and Get Your Love

by vanishingbyler



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Coming Out, M/M, Nightmares
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-26
Updated: 2017-10-26
Packaged: 2019-01-23 06:53:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,246
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12501408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vanishingbyler/pseuds/vanishingbyler
Summary: Will could call anybody after a nightmare, but Mike always seems like  the best option.





	Come and Get Your Love

**Author's Note:**

  * For [homosexualbyers](https://archiveofourown.org/users/homosexualbyers/gifts).



> this is quick i just wanted to bash out something byler before s2 is released
> 
> gifted to jules bc they're gay and come and get your love is Our song

It was a little after midnight when Will Byers woke in a cold sweat, shaking and struggling to breathe. It took a few seconds to steady himself, to know _no, this one wasn't real, this really was just a nightmare._

He cast his gaze across the room towards the two walkie talkies on the cabinet. If he called channel 7 on the SuperComm, he'd get either Lucas, Dustin, or Mike, and at least one of them would be able to come and keep him company. Or, he could call the Cobra, which only Mike had the second of. 

He chose the Cobra.

•••••

It was a little after midnight when Mike Wheeler was distracted from picking chords on his new guitar by the screeching of one of his walkie talkies on the desk. 

“Mike? Are you awake? Over.” Mike edged towards it. “Mike? Answer me if you’re there. Over.”  
“I’m here.” he croaked, the first hints of tiredness showing in his voice. “What’s up? Over.”  
“I- I need you here. Something just happened, something I… I can’t explain it over this, I need to see you in person… Over.”  
“It’s the middle of the night, Will, I don’t know how I could-”  
“ _Please._ ”

Mike wasn’t sure if it was the air of desperation, the voice crack that made Will sound on the edge of tears, or the urgency of begging before Mike could say over, but the older boy realised this was serious.

“Give me a half hour, keep the window unlocked. Over and out.”

•••••

It was quarter to one in the morning when Will heard his window slide open and breathed a sigh of relief. It felt like the first breath he’d taken since waking up. He was still shivering in the sweat-drenched pyjamas, but knowing Mike was close eased the terror.

“Will?” Mike’s voice wasn’t as groggy as it had been over the Cobra, but his eyes did give away a hint of tiredness.

Will leapt on his friend for a hug the second he reached the bed, breathing heavily into Mike’s neck.

“Hey, hey, what’s up? Are you okay?”  
“I had a nightmare.” he mumbled into Mike’s shoulder.  
“Wanna talk about it?” Mike murmured back, gently stroking the shivering boys arm.

Will pulled away. He started to fidget with his long sleeves, keeping his eyes cast down. He shrugged, and Mike forced himself to look away. He hated seeing Will upset; after everything he’d been through, it would be perfect if he could just settle down and be happy. If they all could.

Instead of pressuring Will to talk, Mike strolled over to the corner of the room where Jonathan’s dusty old guitar sat. Will kept it for days Mike was there- he was learning, slowly, and since Ted had implemented the “no guitar past 5pm” rule, his only real option for practicing properly was at the Byers’.

He began to pick out the chords of Come and Get Your Love, the first song he’d learned. He was conscious that Joyce was sleeping, so he tried to be quiet and didn’t bother singing. (He wasn’t very good, anyway).

•••••

It was half past 1 when Mike felt a hand on his. He put the guitar down and focussed his attention on the hazel eyes staring intently back.

“To explain the nightmare, I have to tell you something else first.”  
“You can tell me anything, dude.”  
“No… I can’t, not easily.”

Mike hugged him again. There was only so much he could say in a situation like this, and he’d always been a firm believer that actions speak louder than words.

“You know what everyone says about me?”  
“Mm-hmm?”  
“That I’m… You know. That I’m gay.”  
“Yeah.” Mike inhaled shakily as he thought back to every time he’d felt white hot rage towards someone calling the younger boy a fag, a fairy, a fruit, a freak.  
“... They’re not wrong.”  
“Oh.”

Will pulled away from the hug sharply. Mike panicked, realising that the _oh_ could have come across differently to how he meant it.

“Thank you for telling me. I mean it, it means a lot to me that you trust me.”  
“Of course I do.”

He rested his head on top of Mike’s shoulder, and Mike put his head on top of Will’s. They both found solace in the sounds of each other’s breathing.

The room went quiet again.

•••••

It was bang on two when Will spoke up.

“The nightmare…”  
Mike’s ears pricked up. “Yeah?”  
“I wasn’t sure if it was real. I’m never sure if it’s real. It felt so much like it could have been happening.

You know how, in a dream, if you scream you know it’s not real because your throat doesn’t hurt? Well… I could feel it. I was screaming and it was like, like my whole body was on fire. And I could feel every word in my throat and-” He paused to breathe in and out, his heartbeat erratic.  
“It’s okay, Will. You’re okay.”  
“In the dream, there was this… monster. Not the demogorgon. It was bigger, I think, it was angrier. It was cornering me. And I was there with-” He cast his eyes downward again. “This guy. One I like.”  
“Oh? Wh-who d’you like?”  
“Not the point.” Will said, though he was at least slightly smiling now. “But he’s gorgeous. And kind, and protective. And I’ve had a crush on him for a long, long time. And we were there, and… I don’t know. It was like?” He sighed in frustration, trying to find the words. “It was like a date. We were in the diner, the one next to the arcade. And everything went dark. It was like being back in that… _place_.”  
“The Upside Down.” Mike muttered, his breath catching in his throat. He wished he could forget.  
“And this _thing_ came out. This monster. Except this time it wasn’t coming for me.”  
“Will…”  
“It was coming for him. I think that was worse. I had to watch when it was just, like, tearing him apart. Vapourising him. It’s like he was falling apart and I felt so guilty because I barely managed to look after myself last time, but seeing him get… destroyed, it was-”.  
“Shhhh, I get it. It wasn’t real though. You know it wasn’t. ”  
“I know.” Will said, his voice sounding far away. He stifled a yawn.

Mike adjusted their position on the bed so they were lying down, covering Will in the blanket. He held Will in a tight hug and let the smaller boy cry into his shoulder for a little while.

•••••

It was quarter past two when Mike heard Will’s breathing even out, and it became clear he was asleep. Mike came off high alert and allowed his own eyes to flutter shut.

There was something about being so close to Will that made him feel safe. It wasn’t just the general warmth, though that helped- he felt comforted being here, knowing Will was okay and they weren’t being kept apart by circumstance and danger.

It didn’t take long for the sense of ease to lull him to sleep.

•••••

It was 6:30 in the morning when Joyce Byers entered her son’s room to wake him for school.

She startled for a second, but then smiled at the sight of him curled up in the arms of his best friend. Deciding letting them lie-in was worth it, she backed out of the room and quietly shut the door.


End file.
